We already covered Sony's Xperia Tablet Z announcement earlier this week, and Sony was showing off its smartphone counterpart at CES last month. But since we're actually on the floor here at Mobile World Congress, we thought we'd take some time to get our hands on the device (and its smartphone counterpart). Maybe, just maybe, we'd even ask to test out the waterproofing—Ars does have a long and illustrious history of "stress testing" consumer electronics after all. Luckily for us, Sony was prepared.

An immersive experience

To recap, both the Xperia Z smartphone and Xperia Tablet Z can be immersed in up to three feet of water for about thirty minutes without suffering any ill effects. Sony was clear that this feature doesn't make the devices suitable for use in the swimming pool, but dropping them in the tub (or in some other more embarrassing water-filled bathroom fixture) for an instant or spilling your coffee all over them isn't going to ruin them.

Enlarge/ Both phone and tablet use small rubber covers to protect the phone's ports from liquid intrusion.

Andrew Cunningham

The various ports—microSD, micro-USB, and the headphone jack among them—are all protected by small covers that keep water and dust out. If one of these covers is open or breaks, your device will be just as susceptible to water damage as any other phone or tablet.

Enlarge/ The Xperia Z takes a bath—you can still press the power button and interact with the screen when it's underwater.

Enlarge/ We threw the Tablet Z in next, with the same results—the device was toweled off and kept right on working afterward.

Both devices could obviously be turned on and used underwater if necessary, something our Sony rep pointed out made them well-suited for use in the kitchen. Toweling them off is all you'll need to do in case of contact with liquid (even if our impulse is still to be terrified of getting our smartphones wet).

More conventional hands-on impressions

The waterproofing is great, but luckily the phone and tablet also work on dry land. We certainly weren't floored by the last Sony flagship phone we reviewed, but both the phone and the tablet seem well put-together. They also share a common hardware and software design language that makes them look nice together.

Both devices favor flat surfaces and edges to the slightly curved ones favored by most other smartphones. Both feel very light in the hand—the phone is 0.31" thick and weighs in at 5.15 ounces, while the tablet is just 0.27" thick and a very light 1.05 pounds (down from 1.33 pounds for the Nexus 10 and 1.44 pounds for the latest iPad). One of my longstanding issues with widescreen tablets has been that their weight and balance make them difficult to hold with one hand for a sustained period of time, but the Xperia Tablet Z is actually quite comfortable when held this way. We hope the lightness doesn't come at the cost of battery life, but barring that, we were impressed by how it felt to hold and use.

Enlarge/ Both tablet and phone are thin and light, and they share common design touches (see the power button in this photo, for example).

Andrew Cunningham

Both run Android 4.1.2 with a custom Sony skin, and the devices also share many of the same internals—a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro SoC running at 1.5GHz, 2GB or RAM, and expandable internal storage courtesy of a microSD card slot (both devices sport 16GB of built-in storage, though a 32GB version of the Tablet Z will also be available). They support the common array of connectivity interfaces—dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, and (in the smartphone) 3G and LTE support. The tablet lacks cellular connectivity, but as we mentioned in our original write-up it does have the IR blaster for use with televisions.

The Xperia Z smartphone has a 5-inch 1080p display that we've seen in quite a few next-generation Android phones and a 13 megapixel camera, while the Tablet Z uses a 10.1-inch 1920×1200 display and a slightly lower-specced 8 megapixel camera. (This reflects the reality that people are much more likely to count on their smartphones as cameras.) The screen isn't as dense as the one on the Retina iPads or the Nexus 4, but it's still a reasonably nice 224ppi.

Enlarge/ This makes one-handed operation more plausible than in any other widescreen 10-inch tablet I've tried.

Andrew Cunningham

If the tablet has one weakness that's immediately apparent, it's the price—it starts at $499 for the 16GB version and $599 for the 32GB version. This pricing is commensurate with that of the iPad, but Android tablets have historically had issues doing well when priced in the same range as Apple's juggernaut. We don't have US pricing information for the phone, but we expect it to be in the same range as other high-end Android handsets—something like $199 with a two-year contract.

The tablet will be released in the US at some point this spring, and it will be available globally on March 1 (the Xperia Z is already on sale in Japan, but we have no specific information about a US release date). We've requested review units of both so we can give them a proper going-over (and so we can spend more time immersing them in liquid).

While the water-resistence is nice in theory, relying on floppy rubberized "door" covers to maintain it strikes me as heartache waiting to happen. Although, admittedly, I'm not certain how else they could solve that problem.

It's nice to see that despite all their other missteps and problems, Sony has maintained their unique design language: That rich black tone with angular edges and a minimum of silver is uniquely theirs, and I like how it manifests in devices like this. Looking forward to the Ars review(s).

While the water-resistence is nice in theory, relying on floppy rubberized "door" covers to maintain it strikes me as heartache waiting to happen. Although, admittedly, I'm not certain how else they could solve that problem.

That's pretty much it. I'm curious about sound -- do the speakers work underwater? I would feel pretty comfortable using my current tablet in the kitchen, with the exception that I wouldn't want gunk to get in the speakers.

Did the Sony rep say it would leak without the covers? I don't see how the ports would have to leak water into the device even without rubber covers, I mean sure you don't want water there (would possibly cause oxidization after a little while), but a connector with gold plated pins molded in plastic could be made so water don't leak past the crevice. They would probably cost a bit more, but if you go through the hassle of making the rest water resistant.

I'm curious, how do the speaker and earpiece keep out water? from the first image, the speaker didn't look like it had any kind of rubberized cover, and the earpiece would have to be exposed.

Well, think about it, waterproof cameras like panasonic's DMC-TS3 (mine) has a mic on the top and the speaker on the back, the mic is fine, the speaker sucks. The water gets inside and gets flushed afterward, I don't know how it works, maybe it has a strong membrane that can withstand pressure.

Sony isn't aiming this at "diving" enthusiast or toilet time-maximizers, but obviously they are aware that most of home-made porn is and will be made on phones/tablets (sometimes even with phones). So they need to keep those fluids out.

Did the Sony rep say it would leak without the covers? I don't see how the ports would have to leak water into the device even without rubber covers, I mean sure you don't want water there (would possibly cause oxidization after a little while), but a connector with gold plated pins molded in plastic could be made so water don't leak past the crevice. They would probably cost a bit more, but if you go through the hassle of making the rest water resistant.

I would agree here. The rubber covers are cheaper probably, but it should be possible to do without those.

While the hardware sounds nice, I've been burned by too many OEM "upgrades" when it comes to Android devices. For me, it's Nexus or nothing.

With Sony being Dev-friendly and you don't minding a pure Android experience, I don't see how upgrades are an issue. The process of flashing is becoming simpler, safer, and more noob-proof by the day. Unless you don't want to flash custom ROMs that is.

Wait a minute... rubber covers? Sorry that won't work. Such a device is NOT waterproof. Splash and rain resistant, absolutely. A drop of rain straight into a port on a device could potentially ruin it. Those covers are nice to have when running in the rain to your car, or drinking coffee with the device on the table.

But not submersible. No way. Submersible devices have membranes over every switch and button, and they have flush-mounted contact pads on the case, with spring loaded pins on the connector on the cable, and some sort of retention mechanism (often magnetic) to hold the connector to the device. If it isn't that, then it isn't submersible.

They can get away with it for a while. And even if the device appears to work fine after submersion, there was probably a little water intrusion and beginnings of electrolysis on the circuit board. Also, and I speak from experience because I used to work in the industry, the showroom models are prepared by hand by techs before they are dunked into a tank of water. That example model will end up with completely corroded circuits on the inside. But that will happen after CES or whatever is over and the public won't see it.

I'm curious as to how water damage will be covered by Sony's hardware warranty, if at all. Will slight water corrosion on the circuitry inside be covered by the base warranty? It would make sense to me, considering the water resistant properties of these devices are one of the main selling points, and telling a customer "Not covered, we can fix it for $X amount" because a port's rubber cover formed an imperfect seal and let some coffee in I imagine would result in lots of consumer resentment. Or perhaps they're making arrangements with cellular providers?

Sony isn't aiming this at "diving" enthusiast or toilet time-maximizers, but obviously they are aware that most of home-made porn is and will be made on phones/tablets (sometimes even with phones). So they need to keep those fluids out.

So glad I'm not drinking tea right now. Ahahahah, that was good. ^^Also, I have no idea why, but I'm always faintly excited by new shiny Android things. Mostly because I'm likely to be able to afford them. The mobile plans are always too pricey for Apple items. If that makes no sense, it's because it's an Aussie thing.

While the hardware sounds nice, I've been burned by too many OEM "upgrades" when it comes to Android devices. For me, it's Nexus or nothing.

With Sony being Dev-friendly and you don't minding a pure Android experience, I don't see how upgrades are an issue. The process of flashing is becoming simpler, safer, and more noob-proof by the day. Unless you don't want to flash custom ROMs that is.

I actually contemplating using "skins" instead of "upgrades," so my mistake. I meant OEM skins, like Touchwiz and Sense. Unlike most Arsians, I actually do like Sony, too.

And while I do flash custom ROMs regularly, I'd still prefer to have the stock Android experience right out of the box. So, if Sony can finagle a way to get this into the Nexus program and somehow get that device onto Verizon (ha!), then it'll be my next device for sure.

Good job by Sony! Finally, somebody understands that not everybody cares for a thinner phone, but everybody wouldn't mind a waterproof phone. In fact, this might be my next upgrade (in two years, of course).

I actually had a phone that took a dunk before and let me tell you, I wished waterproof was one of its features.

If you live in an area where you got to the beach a lot this kind of solution is hugely valuable. I have a dead Iphone 4S sitting here that sure could have used this type of design.

As such I'm not sure why Ars chose to demean this with crass toilet humor. I though journalists had a bit more insight that that. The whole world does not spend their life in tower blocks in landlocked cities. Where I live people are quite outdoorsy and these waterproof phones are selling like hotcakes.

As such I'm not sure why Ars chose to demean this with crass toilet humor. I though journalists had a bit more insight that that. The whole world does not spend their life in tower blocks in landlocked cities. Where I live people are quite outdoorsy and these waterproof phones are selling like hotcakes.

Still everyone in the world goes to toilet (or equivalent), don't we? I burned two phones in there.